Holding pattern
I’ve been in Wisconsin the past few weeks visiting family and friends, and have been enjoying running in the greenery and fresh air. Even if the people do look at me funny.
It’s been odd lately though. Suddenly I’ve been simultaneously running better and worse than I have before. I went for a run with my brother and before I knew it I’d gone 5 miles. I haven’t done that since 2005.
But then I went for one run that gave me nasty blisters and then I tried tweaking my form and running more on the balls of my feet and I got a nasty tendon/shin pain which kept me from running for four days.
I got really frustrated. and then I suddenly got embarrassed about being barefoot for some reason. but running is the only thing keeping me sane right now, and I’m NOT going back to running shoes, so I had to keep going. So I asked the friendly folks on the barefoot boards for help and they gave me some. The “experts” keep saying “bend your knees, and bend them some more” but I didn’t know if that meant bending on the afterstroke, or kind of squatting while I was running? I had worked so hard to get my posture straight that it seemed odd to squat. But then someone said “run lower” and I decided to give it a shot on my run the other night. I went out on my own so I didn’t have to keep up with my brother, and tried this:
- stand up straight
- tuck butt under (throw your junk on a table, is how some describe it!)
- then I lowered myself a bit so my knees were bent
- then I started running in place, making sure my landing was right
- started moving forward
It felt weird at first. But it didn’t hurt my shins. “They” also say to imagine the legs and big butt muscles doing all the work, and not the feet. And lowering myself a bit definitely helped me kind of open up my hips and use those big muscles to propel myself.
The result? A pain-free run! I didn’t want to overdo it since I was still scared about my tender shin, but i felt pretty great! I’m all rested now so I’m looking forward to my run tonight to open it up a bit!
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That’s awesome! I’ll have to try some of those tips. Since it’s been so wet, I’ve been running in my Merrell true-glove shoes, and that’s way too much shoe. It’s so mindbending that less shoe = less pain.